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Making sound decisions in digital music world

Downloading illustration.
(Jimmy Turrell / For the Times)
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From the start, I opposed digital downloads and everything about them.

The early MP3s a decade ago were so sonically constricted they seemed like the worst so-called advance in the history of recorded sound. The tyrannical iTunes infrastructure requires the vast variety of musical forms to be treated as songs if they hoped for a place at the digital table, and the lack of information about the music was (and remains) appalling. The Apple and Amazon war on record stores threatened to disastrously diminish the crucial social interaction of music lovers.

Things started to change around three years ago, when the public was presented with evidence that digital files could actually sound fabulous. Their spacious sonics outshone the best CDs (including Super Audio CDs) and classic 1950s-era remastered recordings were even warmer than on their original vinyl. But equipment was expensive, arcane and unreliable.

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Availability of downloads was farcically restricted. Software could drive you crazy. Many of the sites offering downloads were either inept or dodgy.

Now it appears that we have turned a corner. Hi-def downloads are suddenly plentiful, especially for new releases, and in all music genres. The price of the electronics is, this fall, in free-fall. Incompatibility issues are mostly resolved and setups have gotten easier. I still fret over the fate of record stores, but if I could I would happily transfer my CD collection to hi-def downloads.

So what exactly do you need and what do you need to know? Hi-def downloads can still seem somewhat complex. You must choose the format — the most common being FLAC, WAV and Apple’s proprietary AIFF. Then there are the sampling rates, say, 44.1 kHz (that of the standard CD). Finally, there is the size of the sample, or bit rate, which is usually 16 or 24.

FLAC is my preference. It handles the highest quality, but the files are not quite as unwieldy as WAV. But unlike WAV or AIFF, FLAC will not play on iTunes, so you will need a special player on your computer, of which there are many for free and not so free for Apple and Windows. I’m hooked on one by Amarra that for $160 turns my iMac into a high-end music machine. You can also buy digital players that connect directly to your stereo and accept files from pretty much all forms of digital memory.

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As for sampling rate, higher is better. The MP3s available from Apple and Amazon offer but a fraction of the information needed to reach CD standards. When it is doubled to 96, the most common hi-def download, you reach the equivalent of an SACD. When it is doubled again to a spectacular 192, you enter into new realms of musical information (even higher rates are now possible but next to nothing has made its way into the marketplace). The CD bit rate is 16; go for 24 when you can.

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Think of it this way. Switching between an MP3 of Gustavo Dudamel’s showy new Deutsche Grammophon recording of Strauss’ “Also Sprach Zarathustra” with the Berlin Philharmonic downloaded from Amazon and a 96/24 download is like starting in the worst seats at the Dorothy Chandler Pavilion, where music sounds like it’s coming from the next room, and then crossing the street to the full sensation-immersion experience at Walt Disney Concert Hall.

Digital retailing, however, remains a Wild West. The best bet is an exceptionally well-stocked French website called qobuz.com, which sells physical discs and downloads. Most major new releases show up at CD quality (44.1/16) and some in hi-def (96/24), which are labeled studio master, and the back catalog is daily increasing. Prices (which are given in euros) vary widely, with the typical full price release being around $17 and the studio master version close to $24.

There are also deals along with remarkable finds, such as a download of more than 24 hours’ worth of great recordings from the BBC archives (with live performances by the likes of Sviatoslav Richter, Carlo Maria Giulini and many other classical legends) for just over $34, one of the best bargains of all time. Something else worth searching for are the Los Angeles Philharmonic live recordings, once iTunes exclusives now on qobuz in far better CD-quality sound.

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The U.S. site that helped pioneer hi-def downloads is HDtracks. It’s hit and miss. My credit card number was stolen when it was hacked. And you don’t always get a PDF copy of the CD booklet, as I discovered the hard way when I recently purchased a hi-def version of the Malian singer Rokia Traorè’s “Beautiful Africa” on Nonesuch. I now see that I could have bought the recording on qobuz and gotten a PDF of the booklet with translations of the songs.

What HDtracks has is the best selection of recordings in the ultra hi-def (178/24 and 192/24). Rock and jazz classics remastered at this sampling rate will simply blow you away. You may also be blown away when you discover that an original LP with a length of 29 minutes can cost as much as $24.98 at 192/24 download (prices drop to $17.98 for lesser and still exception 96/24).

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But the late ‘50s and early ‘60s RCA recordings, under the Living Stereo rubric offered at 176/24, are more than worth it. I recently picked up Jascha Heifetz’s performance of Glazunov’s Violin Concerto recorded with the RCA Victor Symphony (essentially the L.A. Phil) under Walter Hendl. It was recorded in 1963 at the Santa Monica Civic Auditorium, a dry, dead space for live music (but apparently suitable for recording). The Santa Monica Civic is in my neighborhood, and so alive is the impression this download has made on me that I now sense Heifetz’s presence emanating from the building when I walk past it.

Other options for downloads include the sites of three high-class British record labels — Linn, Chandos and Hyperion. You will find pretty good selections at eclassical and Presto Classical. Pristine Classical, another French site, offers great recordings in the public domain with astonishingly good sound — this should be your first source for Fürtwängler, Toscanini and Schnabel. A quirky site, High Definition Tape Transfers, works magic on old reel-to-reel tapes.

I’ve saved the DAC for last. This is where listeners often balk. Don’t.

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The digital to analogue converter, which turns digital code into sound waves, is already one of the most common pieces of electronic equipment in your house. You probably have many, but none of them may be much good. Every CD player, DVD or Blu-ray player, computer, smartphone, tablet and digital music player has one.

But a separate DAC, running between your computer or music player to your stereo, is required to get the full advantage from downloads. A decent one will not only give you hi-def but greatly enhanced low-def as well, and that includes listening on Internet radio.

The options are now considerable, whether they are inexpensive, small, sometimes portable devices or high-end component DACs that run in the thousands of dollars. I’ve found that all make a world of difference. A more than respectable DAC disguised as a USB stick called the Dragonfly, into which you can plug headphones, powered computer speakers or run into an amplifier and is ideal for a laptop, has dropped from $249 to $99. Your Christmas shopping just got a lot easier.

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We still, obviously, have a long way to go until hi-def downloads become commonplace. The vast majority of cellphones, pods and tablets can’t handle them and don’t have high-quality DACs. There are now dedicated portable music players coming out of Asia from Astell and Kern, Fiio and HiFi Man that do have good DACs and play everything. But were Apple and its competitors to get on board, everything would change.

Retail clearly needs work. Simplifying and standardizing sampling rates would help. It’s time already for the major labels to get up to speed. Hi-def digital downloads, for instance, are not offered for review, which means most publications (even audiophile ones) still rely on CDs, and that further prevents the word from getting out. We’ve got to figure out the record store problem. Prices of old remastered LPs are mostly too high.

But the digital music future is finally here. It’s time to embrace it.

mark.swed@latimes.com


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